I wrote this in September:
It´s still early stages and i don´t see any standout talents, just some potencially good players. My favourite Sporting player is actually english. It´s Eric Dier. He´s a 19 year old Center back who can play as defensive Cm also. Eric has been at Sporting since early age because his parents moved to Portugal. He went through the Sporting Academy and combines some of the latin technical attributes he earned at the Academy with the professional approach and work ethic of an English player. His performances last year were very encouraging and our former coach liked to play him at midfield since he had good positional sense, good passing ability and a very imposing physique thanks to his 6ft2in. He called him the English Beckanbauer. This year our Manager is playing him as a Center Back again. He was flawless in our win against Olhanense but in the last game where we draw at home against Rio Ave he made some mistakes. But that´s just natural in a player with just 19 years of age and with 15 appearences as a senior player. I also like his attitude. Grateful towards Sporting and willing to renew. Due to the nature of our league, sooner or later we will probably sell him. He´s a potencially great player and since he is english, if he evolves well, i think he will be involved in the biggest transfer in our history, surpassing Nani´s or Ronaldo´s sale value. We know how the english clubs are willing to splash out on english talents and with one which was formed in one of the best footballing schools in Europe, no doubt we will capitalize on that.
It´s December now and he has been in and out of Sporting´s main team. He´s been playing in the B team lately because the current manager favours the Rojo (argentinian international) and Maurício partnership. Although i like Dier, this partnership is doing well and the manager can´t replace an Argentinian international for an English u21. Even so i think we will sell Rojo after the world cup if he does well there. We will probably sell him to an italian club. Then Dier will get his spot and evolve as a player. I really like Dier and he gets lots of support from Sporting fans. It´s not easy to come to our Academy, do well against Portuguese, African and Brazilian talents and even become captain in our youth ranks. Everton tried to buy him after the loan spell but we rejected their bid. Hope he gives us a good couple of years and then we can sell of a reasonable profit.
pause man